Page 150 of Plunge into Obsession

“Tell me.”

“After thirty years of marriage, my father finally made good on his threat and killed my mom in a brutal, bloody way. I was away at school by that time, but Luis was still home. He was the one who found her. I suppose my father thought this was another lesson I needed to learn, because he recorded the entire fucking thing and sent the video to me.”

I wasn’t trying to justify why I killed my fucking bastard father. It was just the way it happened.

She pulled back, her eyes wide in horror. “And y-you watched it?”

“There was no choice,mi corazón. Either I watched it, or he’d enact the same fucking thing on me.”

She bit her lip, tears forming in her blue eyes.

I pulled the abused flesh from between her teeth. “You hate me yet?”

She cupped her hand on my cheek. “Hate you? I don’t hate you.”

I leaned toward her touch and kissed the center of her palm. She blinked and rested her head back on my chest.

“I had to do something. But I acted too late. Maybe Luis hadn’t been wearing a mask his entire life. Maybe it was because of all the shit he went through with our dad that made him into the man I didn’t recognize. I don’t know.”

And this was a question I had been asking myself for years.

Was my little brother born this way, and there was just no hope for him, or was it because of the years of abuse he’d endured that made him like this?

“Does it matter?” she asked softly.

I didn’t answer her.

“You went through the same thing he did. Maybe even worse,” she said. “And you turned out fine?”

A slow smile formed on my lips. “Why are you saying that like a question?”

“You don’t act like a monster. And y-you haven’t beaten me.”

That wiped away any amusement I had.

There was a slight hesitation in her voice that I fucking hated.

I had used her fear of me against her, but fuck me, I hated the thought that she might believe I would actually hurt her.

“Baby, do you really think I am capable of treating you the same way my father treated my mother?”

“I don’t know the kind of man you are,” she whispered.

“You don’t know everything about me. But know this,mi corazón. I would never beat you. I might inflict a little pain during sex, but you fucking love my rough side, don’t you, baby?”

She took a shaky breath. I smiled and pressed my lips on the top of her head.

“I don’t want to live with a shell of a woman. I don’t want the kind of marriage my parents had. I want you. And I can’t let you go,mi corazón, even if you begged me to. But I will bleed the world dry for you. I will do whatever is necessary to ensure you’re happy, but you will have to be by my side. Do you understand?”

She didn’t answer me right away.

Then, “Yeah. I understand.”

And I wasn’t sure if it was acceptance, resignation, or longing I heard in her voice. Perhaps a combination of the three.

20

BIANCA

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